Slmrnltt a?- Abraham Lincoln and His Last Resting Place A Leaflet Published for Distribution (3^ //zg National Lincoln Monument in the City of Springfield, Illinois Compiled by EDWARD S. JOHNSON, Custodian BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS: HON. EDWARD F. DUNNE, : : Governor HON. FRANCIS G. BLAIR, Supt. Pub. Instruction HON. ANDREW RUSSELL, : : Treasurer T mm HE Life of Abraham Lincoln has been written by many men in many tongues. The resources of rhetoric and eloquence have been exhausted in their portrayal of this character that however viewed holds a lesson for all mankind. In this brief space and for the purpose which this leaflet is designed to serve, the simple homely details of the martyred President's early life could not be better told than in his own words. No polished recital could be so prized by the great multitude who hold his memory dear as this transcript of a letter written in 1859 to his friend the Hon. Jesse W. Fell, of Bloomington, Illinois: ^■52. yyxAj A-ft'v-t-"-^ i-'ir-C'-*/ /CryCZ/ /jTry'^ *-^ \J'C'\~Qyt^^.^*..*^ prf^ it. s-^' »^IU^. rfi^-'^r^ f'^f^^^^ /f^^f>-f- '^ ^^^ ^:^ ' ^ Z,^^ '/Ov-*y~! ^y^'-^^^ lU*-^t^ fii«-»__^ ^«-^ «5i— ;^^ ' fc-^-'^^^-T <>_ <>-X- ^t- '-v^ ^;r-<---*« ' »~j-'-> (y^hjy^M f^^^-t^KAj ^jz--* n. Of FEB tlJ 1919 i^y^xyyiy-^^K^Uj — y i^y*-^ o-/n^^r€..ct:X /x^FCa^--^ /^/-^^t—ZS Qi^-o^-tiux^ (Z^i^^^ (^^tU-^ J e-«W/ /^i/?/y ^Z-n-^-oK^ A/T=-, ..^-Kja^^iZZj ^^^ ^TT^ /I^-i^ 0->~^ «^»-~y-s ' tfVtLfi-^ ^ 'K^«,^^-o iJ«:^_o A^~^c^' iJiZj^^ ^ )(^ / ??- »^. ABRAHAM L I N C 0 L N and HIS LAST resting place t ABRAHAM LINCOLN little thought as he penned the words, "What I have done since then is pretty well known," that a world would one day listen enthralled to the tale of what he had done and should do in the decade from 1855 to 1865. In 1854, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820 opened a new political era, and an agitation of the slavery question was begun which was destined to grow until the shackles were struck forever from the hands of the slave. By this repeal slavery claimed protection everywhere ; it sought to nationalize itself. At this time the question of "popular sovereignty" arose, the right of the people of a territory to choose their own institu- tions, and upon this question Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas fought the "battle of the giants." and Mr. Lincoln's signal ability as an orator was forever established. He became at once the leader of his party in the West and the foremost champion of the liberties of the oppressed. In a private letter, written at this time, Mr. Lincoln defines his position on the great question of the day as follows: I acknowledge your rights and my obligations under the Constitution in regard to your slaves. I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down and caught and carried back to their stripes and unrequited toil, but I keep quiet. You ought to appreciate how much the great body of the people of the North crucify their feelings in order to maintain their loyalty to the Constitution and the Union. I do onpose the extension of slavery because my judgment and feelings so prompt me, and I am under no obli- gations to the contrary. As a nation we began by declaring "all men are created equal." We now practically read it, "all men are created equal except negroes." When it comes to making wholesale exceptions I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty, where despotism can be taken pure without the base alloy of hypocrisy. Your friend, A. Lincoln May 29, 1856, the Republican party of Illinois was organized, and he was now the leader of a party whose avowed purpose it was to resist the extension of slavery. At the national convention his name was presented as a candidate for vice president. He did not receive the required number of votes, but the action was complimentary and served as Mr. Lincoln's formal introduction to the nation. The senatorial campaign of 1858 in Illinois was memorable for the questions involved and for the debates between Douglas and Lincoln upon the great issues that w^ere even then distracting the nation. When these two met in intellectual combat the nation paused to listen. "The eyes of all the Eastern states were turned to the West where young republicanism and old democracy were establishing the dividing lines and preparing for the great struggle soon to begin." To say that Mr. Lincoln was the victor in the contest morally and intellectually is simply to record the judgment of the world. His speeches were clear, logical, powerful and exhaustive. On these his reputation as an orator and debater rests. They defined the difference between the power of slavery and the policy of freedom which ended, after expenditures of uncounted treasure and unmeasured blood, in the final overthrow of the institution of slavery. A B R A H A M LINCOLN 8 and HIS LAST resting pi ace Mr. Lincoln was defeated in this campaign and Mr. Douglas was returned to the Senate, but Mr. Lincoln was now thoroughly committed to politics. In ISo'J and LS60 he journeyed in the Eastern states, mak- ing speeches that thrilled and electrified the audiences which he had expected to find cold and critical. The mutterings of secession already filled the land. The spirit of unrest and rebellion was gaining ground ; but wherever the voice of Lincoln was heard it was pleading for union, for peace, for the Consti- tution, deprecating the evils of slavery as it existed, and protesting against its extension into the free states and territories. His was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, warning the men of the North and the South that a house divided against itself cannot stand. On the 18th of May, ISGO, Mr. Lincoln received the nom- ination of the republican convention held at Chicago for President of the United States. How this plain, comparatively unknown Illinois lawyer was chosen in this critical hour before a man like Seward, with his wide experience and acquaintance, his large influence and surpass- ing ability, his name and fame of thirty years standing, must be regarded as the guiding of that Providence that had brooded over the life of the republic since it declared itself to be the home of the free, the refuge of the oppressed. On the 6th of November Mr. Lincoln was elected, by a handsome plurality. President of the United States. At eight o'clock Monday morning, February 11, 1861, Mr, Lincoln left Springfield for the National Capitol to enter upon his duties as President. With these simple words he took leave of his friends and neighbors : My friends: No one not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at tliis parting. To tJiis people I ewe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century; here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon me which is perhaps greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except by the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him, and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support, and 1 hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. Again I bid you an affectionate farewell. These proved to be his last words to Springfield auditors. The result of his election pleased and united the North while it angered the South. To the more thoughtful men of both parties a crisis seemed imminent. The Southern states immediately seceded ; the Southern Confederacy was formed with Jefterson Davis as President; forts and arsenals were seized and tiic war of the rebellion fairly inaugu- rated. It was this disrupted union, this all but shattered government, which waited for the man who upon the fourth day of March, 1861, took the oath of office and became the President of the United States. The closing words of his memorable inaugural address must have convinced his listeners of the wisdom, the strength, the gentleness of this new incumbent of the chair of State : n. of D, utC 23 ««1fl ABRAHAM L I N c 0 L N and HIS LAST resting place 9 LINCOLN MONUMENT A B R A H A M LINCOLN 10 and HIS LAST resting place •4 ABRAHAM LINCOLN and HIS LAST resting place 11 P o o > ABRAHAM LINCOLN 12 and HIS LAST resting place ABRAHAM LINCO K^N and HIS LAST resting place la A B R A H A M LINCOLN 14 and HIS LAST resting place In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. Vou can have no conllict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it. I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as they surely will be, by the better angels of our nature. With infinite patience and uneqtialed forbearance and sagacity, Air. Lincoln strove to avert war, btit when, on April 12, 18G1, the rebel batteries were opened upon Fort Sumter, forbearance was no longer possible, and, on the 15th day of April, the pen that had only been used to counsel moderation, to urge loyalty, penned a proclamation calling for seventy-live thousand men, and the Civil War was begun. ITliMC VATLT AT OAK I11I)(JE The remains of President Lincoln and his son, Willie, who died in Washington, were placed in this vault May 4, 1S65. The popular government had been called an experiment. Two points of the experiment had already been settled : The government had been established and it had Ijccn administered. One point remained to be established: Its successftil maintenance against a formi(lal)le internal attempt to overthrow it. Congress abl}- supported Mr. Lincoln. It I)lacc(l at his disposal five hundred million dollars and gave him liberty to call out half a million men. During all the years of that long, sad war there were loyal hearts among his admirers that held up the hands of their President, but the crowning personality, the strong, pervading, directing, controlling spirit was that of Abraham Lincoln, whether watching the progress of events from his almost beleagtiered capital or while visiting and mingling with his army at the front. ABRAHAM LINCOLN and HIS LAST resting place 15 A B R A H A M LINCOLN 16 and HIS LAST resting place %. CO o ^ a pL, -S bS c OJ c ;-. rt (-1 B 0) oJ jaxi & OS A a < o a crt o rt -a D c 1\C'ULX, iniESIDExNT FUli THE SECOND TIME OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, CITIZENS OF ROME PRESENT THIS STONE, FROM THE WALL OF SERVIUS TUI^ LI US, BY WHICH THE MEMORY OF EACH OF THESE ASSERT- ORS OF LIBERTY MAY BE ASSOCIATED. 1865." This stone they sent to President Lincohi. In all proljability it reached him before his death and with his characteristic modesty he forebore to mention it. It was eventually discovered in the basement of the White House. By an act of Congress, 1870, introduced by Senator Shelby M. Cullom. of Illinois, the stone was transferred to Springfield to be placed in the National Lincoln Moiunnent then in process of erection. The stone is of conglomerate sandstone pronounced by a geol- ogist of Illinois to be in all probability artificial. It is STj/a inches long, 1!) inches wide, and S^ inches thick. The upper C(\gc and ends are rough as though broken by a hammer; the lower edge and the side which bears the inscription are dressed true. The stone has no intrinsic beauty, but because of its associations, it will always be an object of interest to all lovers of libert}-. Many things used by Lincoln in his lifetime are preserved in Memorial Hall. Here are his surveying instruments, the compass, chain ruid Jacob stafT and the worn old black leather saddlebags in ABRAHAM L I N c 0 L N and HIS LAST resting place 87 which he carried implements and papers when as a young man, he went surveying in Sangamon County. There is a soap dish which was in his bedroom and curtain fixtures, tassel and cord from his Spring- field home. There are two small black cane-seated chairs which are of his first set of parlor furniture ; a big ink-stained deal table and a plain wooden rocker both of which were in his law office in Springfield at the time he was elected President. In a glass frame is a faded piece of white silk with a pattern of red flowers. Deeper than the red of the flowers are dark stains of blood. This bit of silk is from the gown of the actress, Miss Laura Keene, who acted the leading role in "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington, on the night of Lincoln's assassination. When the murderer's shot rang out and the audience sat stunned and horror stricken, Miss Keene stepped from the stage into the President's box and took his wounded head upon her knees. She herself, one year later, brought the piece of blood-stained silk to Springfield and pre- sented it to the National Lincoln Monument. Among the number of Lincoln's personal letters which may be seen at the Monument, is a copy of one of his own hand, written to a little girl in Westchester County, New York, which shows his never failing courtesy and kindness. This little girl of thirteen. Miss Grace Bedell, wrote to Mr. Lincoln during his first campaign for President, telling him she thought he would look l)etter if he would wear whiskers. In the midst of all the turmoil and excitement of the political battle he had time to stop and write a personal reply to a child. In all serious- ness he told her that as he had never worn whiskers, he feared it might be considered a piece of "silly affectation" if he were to begin to culti- vate them. Not long afterwards, however, he did raise the beard which he wore until his death. He never forgot his little friend and on a later occasion when he made a hurried trip through the town delivering campaign speeches, he called for the child and taking her hand, he talked with her and told her that she might observe, he had decided to follow her advice. There are many photographs of scenes made forever dear to the American people because of their association with the life of Lincoln: his birthplace in Kentucky ; the cabin in which his parents were mar- ried ; the little home in Indiana where his mother died ; the wooden shack in which he kept post office and store in New Salem, Sangamon County. Illinois ; the old Rutledge mill where he probably met his first love, Ann Rutledge : his law office in Springfield ; the fine old home in which he married Mrs. Lincoln ; tlie tavern where they spent their honeymoon and many others. An almost life-size portrait of Lincoln was presented to the Monu- ment by Thomas J. Lincoln, a cousin of the President. This picture was painted by Dr. E. E. Fuller, of Keokuk, Iowa, and was awarded as a prize to the Fountain Green Wide y\ wakes, a political organization which took active part in the campaign of 1860. The A B R A H A M LINCOLN 28 and HIS LAST resting place Wide Awakes carried the ])icture in llieir parades and kept it until after Mr. Lincoln's second inauguration as President. They then pre- sented it to Thomas J. Lincoln, of Fountain Green, who fulfilled a long cherished desire when, on his eighty-third birthday he carried it himself to Lincoln's tomb in 1906. A bit of a rebel flag in a frame with a picture of young Col. E. E. Ellsworth has an interesting history. Col. Ellsworth had been captain and drillmaster of the Chicago Zouaves, pronounced the best drilled military organization west of West Point before the war. In Spring- fleld he read law in the office of Mr. Lincoln and a warm attachment sprang up between the two. He accompanied the President to Wash- ington and was given a commission as lieutenant in the Regular Army. When the war began, he left at once for New York and raised with remarkable celerity a regiment of eleven hundred men of which he was made commander with rank of Colonel. He brought his regiment back to Washington and, under orders occupied the nearby town of Alexandria, Virginia. As he marched into the city, Col. Ellsworth noticed a rebel flag floating from the summit of the Marshall House and, accompanied by four soldiers and a few civilians, he ran into the hotel, ascended the stairs and tore down the flag with his own hands. -As he reached the foot of the staircase he was shot dead by the pro- ])rietor of the hotel. His death was immediately avenged by one of his com])anions. Col. I^llsworth was buried from the East Room of the White House by special order of the President who mourned him as a son. Of all the heroes who perished in the bitter four years' struggle, not one was more lamented than this gallant young officer who had never seen a battle. In Memorial Hall may be seen an immense volume containing '.•;!() cjuarto l^iges. It is made up of co])ies of the notes and resolutions of syni])alhy which floofled into the White House after the assassination of Lincoln. By a joint resolution of both Houses of Congress, this volume was published in ISiil, in order to preserve these expressions of .sympathy which were sent from all ])arts of the world, written in not less than twenty-five languages. Legislative bodies, corporations, voluntary societies, jiublic asscm1)lies called together for the occasion and ]irivate individuals, one and all expressed their horror at the crime and their warm sym])athy with the bereaved family of the President and the American peo|)le. A number of the original documents sent to Mrs. Lincoln and the United States Government, after Lincoln's death, were forwarded by Robert T. Lincoln, son of the President, to John T. Stuart, of Springfield, in LSTL ^iid those now hang framed on the walls of Memorial Hall. Most of them ;ire on heavy vellum or |)archmcnt anrl are 1)cauti fully embossed. weo SCHNEPP & BARNES, PRINTERS. SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 19 15 r*,* / \ -; o^.i^;;.-.^ ^•to„ '.ESyg^.' fi-r_. %<^ •' '*^%^' / \-^-^\/ %^^-/ \-^'\/ %. V^^' '^i^C,■ ^^0^ ^^•n^. 0 »''^L% * ^">, V ^. ^'^T-J^'y^ %'^.^--/ \*^-\/ -^ ■^o. .*V-:4."i:-/''^ .^^\.:«iiv-- -^^-^^ .*'' ••A'i:-/^* «.^\*:*^- 1 -. V» tv " 'V * » « » ' ^ !rvr* /► • \..<^^ .-;!&»% \,/ /jfe'- %.<>* :Mk'. \/ ^..' .^:^p;^ %/ -^'^^^ ^-